Talking Sense
by trialway01
Summary: A young man is sadden due to a personal loss. A guy who felt troubled by his actions out of a misguided sense of protection. When two of them meet and the days that followed, they might slowly gain trust in each other. But they have to overcome the issues that affected them first.
1. Chapter 1

In a somewhat busy nighttime street, three figures were walking around the sidewalk wearing what appears to be their combat attire in layers of armor except thr head area that reveal to be three young adults with fair skin tone.

One of the figures is a young woman with straight black hair tied in a ponytail that was around her neck area that goes to her neck and gentle silver gray eyes. She wore an outfit that consisted of a heavy navy blue combat jacket that goes to her knees with a navy blue shoulder coat with black pants, shin-high black combat boots, black gloves that stretch partial around the forearms, a black belt around her waist of the combat jacket, and on top of her head is a navy blue fedora hat. The armor that is visible are the greaves, the vambraces, and a gouger undeneath her shoulder coatthat are colored black.

Another figure next to her is a young woman that was somewhat shorter by a few inches with her skin looked ashen, her wavy hair was looked more like dark brown to blackish color that goes back to nearly the neck area, and her dark brown eyes had a confident look on it. Her combat attire looked more like a black one piece racing suit with black boots, full finger gloves, and fulled molded black pads on her knees and elbows. However she has a non molded sleek armored black and orange vest that protects the entire chest and neck area alongside her similarly non molded vambrace gaunlets combo and greaves and a black racing belt with orange lines around her waist with some pouches around the belt.

A third person on the other side of the young woman with the blue fedora hat appeared to be a young man that was around her height with short brown hair that appeared a little messy, and forest green eyes. Unlike the other two, the young man looked like he was made for combat with a two piece dark green combat uniform with combat boots and gloves of similar color underneath a regular green combat vest along with a smilarly colored gorget was attached to the vest. The rest of the armor that consisted of knee pads and elbow pads, the upper and lower arms, the thighs and shins were colored dark green.

They walked to a cafe that has a sign read 'Coluer Crepes' on it, the sign obivious have letters with each different color on a blank white board with some distincting colors and patterns on it just to stand out and the 'o' was shaped as plain opened crepe, while the cafe itself had windows that show a couple of people inside either on their seats or waiting for their food to arrive.

Once the three went inside the three saw a couple people either eating, drinking, or chatting with each other while minding their own business as they go to the counter that was near the kitchen area that was full of people working there and around the counter was a guy with fair skin, short brown hair that was a little messy, black eyes, and was wearing a red shirt with a 'Coluer Crepes' logo on the left upper chest area while wearing black pants and slip-on sneakers alongside a black cooking apron along with a nametag that reads 'Raleigh' on it.

"Hi Raleigh," the young woman with the fedora hat said to the young man with the apron.

"Hello Lynn," the guy named Raleigh replied politely. He saw two other people that was with her. "And you brought along Miles and Ashley, I suppose."

"Of couse," the female named Ashley said with a smirk on her face.

"Hey," the guy named Miles answered in a dull voice.

Raleigh noticed what the guy responded. "Is something wrong with Miles? Because he doesn't look so good."

"Miles was not happy with the loss of Blakeshire or 'Blake' according to him," Lynn explained. "Ever since the mission he was in a week ago that went wrong, Miles spent his time being in the dorm with the exception of classes, the cafeteria, and training. So after a recent mission to do a clean sweep with just the three of us, we decided to help cheer him up by going here to get some slushies. Somehow Miles agree to it without even complaining whatsoever."

"I can see the point," Raleigh nodded. "Anyway, what kind of slushies can I get for you all for the night?"

After telling him what they wanted and pay for what they ordered with their Lien from their wallets from their pockets(or in the case for Ashley, one of her pouches), Raleigh nodded as he told his coworkers about it, alerting them to start making what the three wanted. Once finished after a few minutes, Raleigh came back to them with three drinks in a cup holder, each of them either a blue, an orange yellow, or green color to them despite all being slusy in appearance.

"Here you go," Raleigh said politely. "Three slushy drinks: a large triple berry for Lynn, a medium orange citris mixer for Ashley, and a medium kale-pineapple for Miles. Enjoy your treat."

"Thanks," Lynn replied as she kissed Raleigh on the lips briefly, giving Ashley and Miles a look on their faces as Ashley whispered, "A wife showing her love to her husband, Miles. Get used to it."

"Agreed," Miles replied in a dull voice as they went to some empty seats that was near a window with their drinks, Lynn following suit shortly before they all sat there with their respective drinks in their hands.

As Miles watched Lynn and Ashley talk to each other while he sip on his kale pineapple slushy, they heard a girl shouted, "Excuse me!"

Lynn, Ashley, and Miles looked around and saw a girl who was visibily angry at a Coluer Crepes employee that had on a similar attire as Raleigh with a brown shirt with black hair tied neatly into a bun aside from having fair skin, brown eyes, and a nametag that reads 'Harper'. The girl appeared no older than a preteen with snow white skin and hair that is straighten down to her back by a couple of inches and have grayish eyes as she sat on her seat. Her attire consisted of a white short sleeve t-shirt, black pants, black loafers, and her black gloves go up to her forearms.

"I'm sorry, ma'am, but the way you were shouting isn't tolerated to the customers," the female Coleur Crepes employee named Harper explained calmly. "So either you can talk more quietly and not pick even a single fight or leave the premise."

The white hair girl growled at the employee as she shouted, "I'm not leaving until I have a drink and with Dark."

"True, but unless you control yourself, this isn't going to happen," Harper explained calmly. "The way you reacted when you acted when you looked at that guy's Scroll to look at the recent message he sent to friends purposely when he went to use the bathroom, growling on the possibility of them coming and at me when I asked politely complain about for no reason other than attention with you screaming isn't nice to boot."

"I can't believe you didn't want to side with me on Dark's constant affection to this girl of his or his lame friends, it starting to make me sick," the girl spat.

"If you don't want to be with him or the people he's with, then please stop interacting with them," Tracy suggested. "It can give everyone a break for a change."

"Never! Dark is mine, and I refuse to leave him!"

"Leave my coworker alone," Raleigh shouted to the white hair girl as he got out of the counter. "You can't just pick fights with the people working there nor insult in front of their faces. Not only that, your attitude is getting out of hand and I don't want to lose anymore customers because of you. Either leave now or else."

"Make me!" the girl defied.

Without warning, Raleigh walked to the white-hair girl, grabbed her wrist and pulled her out of her seat while he said, "I'm sorry I have to do this, but this will be for your own good."

As Raleigh pulls the girl out of the cafe, the girl shrieked, "Get off of me!"

The girl places her other hand on Raleigh's arm and grabbed it tighty with all her might. Raleigh felt a stinging sensation in his arm that was taking the girl away from the cafe before he decided to take a look at it. He then screamed in pain and horror as his hand that was pulling the girl away from the cafe was turning into a sick bluish color as he tried to let go of her.

The employees looked at shocked as Raleigh tried to get off of the girl that was grabbing his steadily sick blue hand that was extending to the rest of his arm, including the female employee named Harper.

Lynn managed to see all of this occur and not wanting Raleigh to suffer anymore from this, dashed out of her seat towards the girl and punch straight to her face despite the fact the white hair girl was a couple inches shorter than her. The impact caused the girl to let go of Raleigh's now sickly blue arm as she landed on the floor with a thud. Lynn on the other hand was watching Raleigh as he watched his frozen hand with shock on his face as he tries to calm himself down before looking at her.

"Thanks Lynn," Raleigh grunted as he can still feel the pain in his sickly blue arm as he slowly got to his feet.

"Anytime," Lynn nodded.

"But still, why did you defended me?" Harper asked. "You didn't even know me too well despite being coworkers."

"Let's just say you care about your job just as I do," Raleigh assured her despite the pain he got. "I won't tolerate people that think it's okay to treat others like trash."

Before anything else can happen, a guy came out of the bathroom with a blank look on his face before he saw the white hair girl on the ground in pain.

The guy that came out of the bathroom had fair skin with short but somewhat messy dark hair, had brown eyes, and wore a black shirt undeneath a dark green unbuttoned long sleeve shirt with jeans and black tennis shoes, but more importantly is that he had headphones on his ears.

"What happened to you, Arial?" the guy asked as he saw the girl lying on the floor with a bruise on her cheek.

"They tried to hurt me, Dark," the now named Arial answered as she hissed in pain. "The guy want to throw me out and the girl punched me when I tried to resist."

The guy named Dark looked at Raleigh and Lynn with a violent look on his face as the two gulped nervously.

"Look, we can explain this." Lynn replied. "The girl tried to . . ."

Before she can say anything, Dark charged towards with a straight punch toward Lynn's face but she quickly dodged the attack while pushing Raleigh out of the way.

Lynn looked at Dark before she shouted, "What was that for?"

"I won't tolerate anyone harming Arial." Dark state bluntly.

Lynn looked at this Dark as he dashed towards them with hatred on his face, forcing Lynn to charge right at him with inhuman speed as she punched him straight into his gut before grabbing his shirt without any problem before throwing him out of the building through the door.

With Dark out of the cafe, Lynn dashed out to the street and saw Dark getting back on his feet as he glared at her. She however had no choice but to get into her combat stance barehanded as she cannot use her Scroll to get her weapons at a time like this when he can exploit it against her. Regardless, Lynn has to stop Dark before anyone else gets hurt in the process.

While Lynn and Dark started fighting each other outside, Ashley, Miles, and Riley just stared in shock by what they had witnessed and got out of their seats to check on Raleigh.

During the process, Arial got up to her feet while nursing her bruised face, her anger growing increasingly violent as she glared at Raleigh. Then without warning, Arial started to form sharpened claws that are made of pure ice that somewhat radiate from the lighting in the cafe. Raleigh on the other hand doesn't look all that grateful as Arial dashes towards him to claw him out when Miles zipped towards her and punched her face back to the floor before he looked at Ashley with a serious look on his face.

"I'm to take Raleigh and Harper to safety." Miles explained.

"You do that," Ashley nodded. "Frost fiend's mine."

Raleigh and Harper nodded before hiding back to the kitchen with Miles going behind them, not wanting to get in the crossfire that's about to brew.

Arial quickly got up as she she shouted, "You all are going to pay for ruining everything!"

"Not on my watch frost fiend," Ashley objected as she pulled out a black semi-automatic pistol from one of her pouches and started shooting Arial without hesitation.

While the bullets landed on Arial are only stun based, it only worked briefly before she looked at Ashley with fury on her face, her rage damping the effects of the stun bullets.

Arial wanted to go after Raleigh and Harper before Ashley shouted, "You want to get to them, you get to me first."

Ashley placed the semi-automatic pistol back on its pouch tightly before pulling out her fists tightly as she got into her combat stance, ready to fight Arial despite the risk of injuring herself.

Once Arial started to charge at her, Ashley began to go on the defensive as she got close with her, blocking or dodging away her attacks while trying to use her counterattacks despite the cafe not being so small and because of their height difference, the customers and employees either try to flee the cafe or stand there and watch the fight occur although some of them decide to record the crossfire between two opponents.

Harper, who alongside Miles, were looking at Raleigh with his frozen arm, Harper feelin bitter while Miles was upset at what Arial had done to him.

"Any ideas," Miles asked. "Despite the fact I can use my scroll to get my weapons, but I can't do that without blowing away our cover and I need to make sure Raleigh's safe."

"I don't blame you Miles," Harper nodded sadly.

Harper then looked around the kitchen before noticing her coworkers that were hiding alongside them before an idea came to her head. Taking advantage of hiding around the kitchen, Harper kneel towards her coworkers before she mouthed a plan to stop Arial. Despite knowing that the options are limited due to what's going on and the risk of being caught in the crossfire between Ashley and Arial, her coworkers nodded as they prepare themselves for what Harper's planning.

Back onto the fight, Ashley blocking and counterattacking on Arial using her claws is starting to wear on her suit due to the markings she gained during the fight, the claw mark going nearly beyond the suit. However, Arial is starting to become desperate as she charges and claws her way on Ashley with the single minded goal of clawing her out. Regardless, Ashley is more than happier to take that risk fighting Arial than letting her go after Miles that was safeguarding Raleigh and Harper.

It didn't take long for her to hear Harper screamed, "Ashley use the sink on her!"

Ashley briefly saw two of the employees filling up the sink with water that was starting to steaming up before they looked at her and nodded.

Smirking at the opportunity, Ashley got to her combat stance but placed her and out and have her fingers go back and forth a few times as to taunt Arial, whose response was to charge towards Ashley screaming in rage.

Ashley smirked as Arial swung her claw to towards her but she jumped diagonally to a table nearby before getting back onto the floor and turned around behind Arial before grabbing her with her arms up in the air before she started to move her to the sink.

Arial felt Ashley grabbing her arms now started to flail around wildly, trying to claw Ashley out of her but suddenly felt a burning sensation coming from Ashley's hands as she started thrashing furiously. Ashley however didn't budged as she continued to move Arial to the kitchen sink that was now finally full to overflowing amounts of hot water status before getting close enough to the sink. Using all her might, Ashley moved Arial's claws towards the sink and started to move closer before dunking them deep into the water while keeping her restrained with full force.

Arial, now with her ice claws in the hot water, screamed in pained and fury as she viciously tries to get herself out of the sink as Ashley subdue her despite the pain she got from her attacks before two of the employees that filled up the sink decide to help Ashley subdue Arial by digging into the scalding water and grabbing Arial's arms to keep her steady despite not having Ashley's combat attire, wanting retribution for what she did to Raleigh and Harper and not letting a little psychotic girl escape for starting this mess.

Arial on the other hand is screaming and hissing in absolute rage as she tries to get out of the now increasingly hot sink while being subdued by Ashley and the two employees when she felt her ice claws are slowly starting to dissapate from the scalding water as she furiously try to to keep her claws solid while trying to make the sink cold but barely succeeding in any of them.

Ashley along with two of the employees continue to subdue her before she barked, "You two, keep her steady! I'm going to finish her off."

Before Ashley can do anything, Arial use her legs on the sink to stabilize herself as she start to furiously get herself out of the sink. Ashley didn't want to let that happen as she released one of her arms to grab a taser-like weapon from her pouch before she jabbed it onto her now soaking shirt after gesturing the two employees to get out of the sink, which they obeyed without question by moving back before Ashley used the taser on Arial. Once connected, Arial started to convulse in pain as she tried to get out of the sink before she manged to use one of her hands and threw hot water at Ashley's face, forcing her to move back while she gets out of the sink.

Once Arial got out, she looked at her now burned and red arms from having been dunked into the scalding water, her claws are now being reduced back to her regular hands before looking at the rest of her now messed up clothes she have. She then turned around at Ashley, who was spitting out the water out while rubbing her face of her and the two employees that helped her, furious at her ruined clothing and her arms being burned, but for going against her and Dark. With her sanity now starting to drop, Arial charged towards them in a desperate attempt to attack but Ashley recovered and tackled her into the puddle of running hot water before she pulled out her taser and started to tased her.

The now soaking Arial is convulsing in pain as she tried to get out of Ashley's grip but couldn't with her claws now reduced due to being dunked in the water and both the scalding and shock being too much for her to escape.

After what appeared to be a few minutes, Arial stopped convulsing as she slumped to the ground, allowing Ashley to let go of her as she walked away slowly as to make sure Arial is fully down.

Once Arial is fully down, she looked at Miles, who was guarding Raleigh that was holding his frozen arm alongside Harper and dashed to them.

"Miles, Raleigh, Harper. Arial's stopped," Ashley explained before looking at Raleigh's fozen arm. "I'm going to tend to Raleigh. Harper, go look for any medical kits to help Raleigh. Miles, go and help Lynn before Dark realizes that Arial is down."

"Are you sure?" Miles asked.

Ashley nodded before Raleigh added, "We're not sure what this Dark is capable of. Helping Lynn out will benefit greatly. Now go."

Miles nodded as he went out of the cafe, determined to help Lynn stop Dark before he continues his assault on her.

The fight against the guy named Dark was suppose to be easy for Lynn to handle due to her having armor, training, and skills as a Huntress to her advantage, but it was starting to prove much harder than she thought.

As the two trade blows with each other with their punches and kicks, Lynn tries to make sure the injuries she receives are less painful by Dark's attacks, but her attacker seemed determined to attack her full force as he agressively attack her down without using any flashy moves whatsoever.

But even Lynn's combat skills are becoming no match by Dark's sheer single minded goal to make her and Raleigh pay for seemingly attacking Arial as he slowly started to expertly dodge and/or block Lynn's attacks while making vicious counterattacks that force her to go on the defensive without warning before repeating the process.

Before Lynn could be overwhelmed by Dark's increasingly quick onslaught, Miles came into the battlefield as he quickly punched Dark to the ground before zipping himself back to Lynn.

"What took you so long?" Lynn asked as she was catching her breath.

"I was protecting Raleigh and Harper from that ice psycho, that's what," Miles answered. He then saw Dark starting to disappear from, which he added, "I'm afraid to keep it brief, they are nursing him back at the cafe while she's down."

"That's good," Lynn mumbled. "Because I doubt that guy wants to run away from something like this."

With Dark now invisible, Lynn and Miles looked around the street they were in, trying to locate the attacker while making sure they are not being ambushed. But both of them doubt on Dark wanting to make an excuse on escaping with his invisibility, including a fight against two opponents. While scaning the area, Lynn started to feel a hand going around her neck behind her before it started to wrap tightly around around her neck before realizing who it is.

"Miles, I need help now!" Lynn panicked as she tries to prevent an invisible Dark from placing his other hand on her head with one of her arms while using the other to get out of his increasing tight grip once she finds them desperately.

Although Lynn is trying to prevent Dark from doing this by using her enhanced strength, it is starting to become apparant that Dark is using some sort of Sembalance to not only make himself invisible but using in conjunction with AURA to boost up his already existing stength made it even worse.

Miles wanted to save Lynn but knew that if he attempted that Dark could escape and try again but with some variations to his next sneak attack. He then got an idea from his head as he dashed back to the cafe before returning with the unlid cups of the slushy drinks that Lynn, Ashley, and himself were formerly drinking before the fight started, wincing them slightly for a moment before knowing that Lynn is more important than the drinks. Without warning, Miles dashed towards the invisible Dark and threw at him, revealing a mess of blue, orange, and green around the upper parts of the invisble attacker.

Dark let go of Lynn who was now gasping for breath as he try to get rid of the mess that Miles made, but he didn't let him do that by dashing towards Dark and made a series of rapid punches and kicks to him before he grabbing Dark's arm and use his own weight to throw to the ground before becoming visible again.

Once MIles walked back slowly to Lynn who finally regain her breathing before looking at the now visible Dark who slowly got up. But once he looked at the cafe and saw Arial lying on the ground near the sink, Dark's stoic face looked more malevolent, determined to not letting anyone hurt him or Arial anymore. Before long, a fog of pure darkness starts to appear around the guy as he slowly got up onto his feet.

Lynn and Miles start to realize what Dark is planning to do with the fog of darkness around Dark when they saw Arial lying on the floor.

"This is bad," Miles said nervously as he pulled out his Scroll from his pants pocket and quickly inputted on the touch screen to have his locker onto the exact location, not wanting to see the full extend of Dark's true power or what he's planning to do.

Lynn looked at Dark as she replied, "Miles, I thought Dark's Sembalance was some sort of invisibility, but whatever you're planning to do, do it fast. I'll try to keep Dark busy long enough for whatever you plan to do."

"You'll endanger yourself!" Miles responded.

"Better than letting Dark endanger everybody," Lynn countered. "Now do it."

Lynn dashed towards the slowly empowering Dark as she grabbed him using all of her strength and endurance as she tackled behind him before using her joint-locked technique tightly to prevent his escape, her hat somehow managing to stay on her head despite all this. However, Dark decide to use some of his newly empowered strength to get out of the joint lock, Lynn used all of her strength to hold him off long enough for Miles' locker to arrive for whatever plan he uses. But while trying to joint lock Dark, Lynn begged Miles to hurry up as she's slowly starting to feel her bones starting to creak.

Miles, after inputting the buttons from his Scroll, waited briefly for his locker to arrive while watch Lynn trying to prevent Dark's escape but endangering herself in the process.

With the locker finally landed near Miles, he pulled his Scroll back into his pockey before quickly used a combination code on the locker to get it open to help stop Dark and save Lynn. Once the locker is finally opened, Miles looked around the locker that has some of his weapons in it before pulling out a small pouch that have a dark green color before opening it to look for something out of the bag. After some quick digging, Miles saw grenades that have an electric symbol on the bag before pulling one out but realizes that one grenade may not be enough to stop Dark.

Lynn was going at her own limits trying to subdue Dark, her bones are now starting to creak more and more by Dark trying to escape her joint lock move despite amplifying her strength to slow him down. By now Lynn was trying her very hardest to make sure Dark is immobile but the sheer power from the darkness around him made her efforts to use her abilities more tougher than before. But by then she heard Miles shout, "Lynn, get out of there now!"

Lynn comply by letting go of Dark out of the joint lock and rolled out of the way at the expense of herself suffering from cramps all over her body and could only do nothing as Miles tries to begin his final strike.

With Lynn of the way, Miles prepares himself as Dark got onto his feet before he uses his free hand directly at Dark and blasted a ball of blurrish green and clear energy towards him.

Once the ball of blurrish green energy connected to Dark, it bursted into a dome size field of blurrish green energy around him as he slows down briefly.

Miles, knowing that's not enough to subdue him, did that again to Dark a few more times as the dome field got greener and blurrier before knowing that he was completely slowed down before Miles pulled out the grenades from the small pouch one at a time and activated each one before throw one of them at a time into the bubble, incasing Dark before the bubble dispersed.

Dark, who was trapped in the bubble could only move barely even with his shadow-enhanced abilities before the grenades came into the bubble. Before long, the bubble dispersed, leaving the grenades active as he was blasted repeatedly with gernades of pure electricity before being rolled back to the ground as a black colored like field flashed briefly before disappearing alongside the dark fog coming around him. But not only that, Dark was unable to move as Miles was catching his breath from the ordeal he and Lynn had been through aside from using the balls of greenish clear energy.

Before they can do anything else, Miles pulled out his Scroll and contacted the police and ambulance while stating what had happened. Once he is confirmed that they will arrive shortly, Miles hanged up the Scroll as he put it into his pocket and waited alongside Lynn, who couldn't move from the exhaustion by how long the fight with Dark had lasted.

Once the police and ambulance arrive, a crowd of peoplec were racing behind them, curious by what had happened at the police scene.

While the police and ambulance start to do their respective tasks, Dark was lying on the ground, his injuries now visible to him as he tried in vain to get back on his feet to finish the two off as Miles was watching him incase he tries to get up, he saw two guys among the crowd that was seeing the aftermath of the fight outside Coluer Crepes.

One of the guys in the crowd had fair skin, combed short golden blonde hair, brownish eyes, and wore a white shirt underneath a long sleeve shirt that was unbuttoned with khaki pants and white tennis shoes. The guy next to him appeared to have fair skin, amber-colored eyes, a mop of somewhat messy black hair, and wore a brown long sleeve shirt that have amber lines on the left of the shirt with black pants and black tennis shoes, but looked like a Fanus with wolf-like ears on top of his head. But what struck Dark the most was that the two guys looked at him with sadden expressions on their faces.

'Rason . . . Gin . . . I . . .' Dark mouthed slowly.

The blonde guy mouthed, 'Dark, we thought there's still good in you, even with Arial joining us. But how can we think of you with her around like this? I'm sorry, but we all need time away from both you and Arial. Please forgive us.'

The blonde guy nudged the wolf Fanus as expressing the desire to leave, which the other guy nodded before they left the scene quietly.

Miles saw the whole event occur, but he doesn't understand what the two guys were talking about. But he saw the guy called Dark having a depressed look on his face as the two guys left the crowd already. Before Miles could say anything, he heard police and ambulance sirens coming around, knowing that any of the Coleur Crepes employees had called for help by now.

Yet somehow to Miles himself, he wondered why Dark would act like this with these two people, but more importantly, why?


	2. Chapter 2

"How are you feeling, Lynn?" Raleigh asked concernfully.

"Not so much thanks to Dark dealing serious chunks of my AURA and my armor," Lynn groaned as she looked at the arm and leg casts above her light pink hospital gown while lying on the bed in a hospital room. "Even though I used my Sembalance to help amplify my attacks and mobility, that guy looked like he's used to combat all the time. Besides, I could still feeling the soreness from the attacks already."

"I know you have to rest before the injures heal up from the ordeal and you are feeling sore, but that doesn't mean you can feel grumpy about it. Especially since you have to wear a pink hospital gown despite not being your favorite color." Raleigh sighed as he wore a red, white, and black racing jacket with tan pants and black loafers.

Before long, the door opened, revealing to Ashley, Miles, and Harper coming into the room with Lynn and Raleigh.

While Ashley wore her orange and black racing jacket with black pants and black walking boots; Miles wore his forest green jacket, brown pants, and black sneakers; Harper wore her brown jacket, jeans, and brown walking boots.

"So what's up?" Lynn asked.

"It's regarding to Arial and Dark," Harper answered plainly.

While Lynn slumped down on the hospital bed annoyed and upset, Raleigh tightly wrapped his arm with his other hand with the memories of what had transpired from the night before, especially from Raleigh remembering how he panicked due to his arm starting to go to sickish blue by the young girl before having it treated by Ashley, his coworkers, and the doctors before he was able to leave early.

"So what is it?" Raleigh mumbled nervously as he tried to forget the horrific memory of the girl trying to freeze his own arm off.

"Due to both Arial and Dark wrecking the Coluer Crepes, it will be closed for the time being until further notice." Harper explained.

"Not only that, we found out by the police that the guy with dark hair was Dark Kuraikaze while the girl with white hair was Arial Kōrinokaze, and that both are in seperate hospitals trying to recover from their injuries before going to court." Ashley answered.

"That's so black and frosty," Lynn deadpaned. Privately she was grateful that Dark and/or Arial wasn't in the same hospital as herself if they decide to harm her when she's vunerable.

"I had that response too when discovering about it the first time too, you know," Ashley nodded bitterly.

"True, but when the crowd was seeing the event, Dark was looking at them, or at least anyone that he saw before he mouthed something to whoever." Miles replied. "Who the person or people are, they must have known Dark and/or Arial, and the reason why Dark became depressed when a few in the crowd had left, even if he was shipped to the hospital."

"So wait, what do you mean?" Raleigh asked as he stopped wrapping his arm around.

"I mean that Dark must have known someone from before," Miles answered. He then added, "I know Dark may be depressed about something even if he isn't a good guy per say, but he didn't endanger anyone else besides us."

"Aside from trying to use his AURA and that madness-inducing Sembalance to full wreck the place trying to find the the perpatrators that hurt Arial," Lynn injected bitterly. "We're all grateful that the police confiscated both of their AURAs they were using before putting them into the hospitals."

"You mean Dark in the hospital, Lynn," Harper clarified. "Arial got out of the hospital this afternoon but is currently being put to a cell due to her harsh behavior, how the event had happened last night, and for trying to hiss and attack anyone during that time."

"I highly doubt anyone's going to defend Arial once court arrives," Raleigh sighed.

"Still I think I should try to talk to Dark," Miles suggested. "I managed to arrange a date to check on him."

"Miles, have you lost your mind?!" Ashley shrieked as she looked at Miles in shock. "If it weren't for you helping Lynn out, those injuries will be the least of her . . . and our worries yet."

"Not just that, you can't reason with a maniac just like Arial," Harper added. "I know you want to talk to him, but you need to know that anything bad can happen to anytime if you meet him."

"True, but Dark is serious injured and couldn't escape or do anything in the hospital," Miles explained. "So I just asked them if I can just get a simple talk to him, that's it."

"Harper's right," Lynn scowled lightly. "I don't think talking to Dark isn't going to work out. Despite him getting serious injuries, we don't know what he's really capable of, with or without his Sembalance."

"If so, why didn't he make any attempt to escape from the hospital?" Miles asked. "We got an idea that his Sembalance must rely on shadows, we know that he may have multiple skills in combat, but there's no report about his attempts to escape."

After a moment of silence between the five, Miles said, "I know this may not be an easy task to talk to him, but someone has to do it anyway."

Lynn sighed for a moment before she made a response. "Alright Miles, you can talk to Dark. But be careful with him; there's no telling what he could do to you if you're not careful."

"I understand, Lynn, and I'll be careful," Miles nodded as he walked out of the door.

"Well, good luck," Ashley nervously replied.

"I hope things go smoothly," Harper nodded with a hint of worry in her.

"Same here," Miles nodded and he's out of the hospital room.

Things grew silent between the four without Miles around, until Ashley asked, "Anyone up for romantic comedy?"

Inside a hospital room that consisted of a hospital bed, a tv screen mounted on the wall, medical equipment around the room, and a single bedroom drawer near the left side of the bed with a Scroll on top of it next a Scroll that have a black covering in it.

But for the person that had short but somewhat messy black hair and dark eyes, he was in a bed with one armcast on his right arm and two leg casts with a light blue hospital gown except he retained his regular quiet disposition just like during his time in Coleur Crepes.

The guy took the Scroll that have the black covering in it and pressed a few buttons to activate the screen before phoning in any of his contacts.

Despite contacting any of the people in his phone number, the guy wasn't to contact any of them, making him sighed before putting the Scroll back to the drawer and used a different Scroll to activate the TV screen mounted the wall. The guy then pressed a few buttons on the Scroll to have it listen to classical music on the internet in about a few minutes. Once statisfied, the guy put away the Scroll onto the drawer and listened to the music playing in the room.

While the guy was listening to classical music, a nurse in a nurse's outfit came to a room and said politely, "Mr. Dark, you have a visitor."

The guy named Dark looked at her with a blank expression on his face as the nurse revealed a guy with short medium brown hair with forest green eyes and was wearing a dark green jacket and black pants with black running shoes. But Dark remembered that this guy was with the girls wear blue and orange-black combat attire alongside him respectively. And how he was defeated by two of them during combat, especially with that guy using these bubbles that made time, or at least, his reaction speed slow down around him before using the electric grenades to shock and knock him down.

Once the guy with the green jacket went into the room, the nurse replied politely, "I hope you two become well aquainted with each other during the visit."

The nurse then walked out of the room, leaving both Dark and the guy with the green jacket alone.

"Hello there, my name is Miles Forester," the guy with the green jacket greeted calmly. "I just want to check on you, Dark."

Dark gave a blank expression on his face as Miles greeted him as he simply lie his head on the pillow of the hospital bed.

"Okay," Miles said as he sat in a nearby seat is isn't too far or too close to Dark while looking at him.

"I'm sorry that I had to use stun grenades alongside with my Sembalance called Reflex Shot on you Dark, but I have to use them to make sure you didn't hurt anyone else," Miles explained as he rubbed the back of his head. Dark turned towards him and simply glared at him as he remembered how Arial was knocked down and wanting to hunt down the people that did this to her.

Miles looked at Dark glaring at him as he knew what he was thinking. "Look, I know that you were upset about what happened to Arial and yourself, but we just don't want either of you to create any more chaos than it ever was."

Dark still glared at him, making Miles sighed about it. He then realize that the guy was listening to classical music around the room. Suprised by this, Miles asked, "So what do you listen to?"

"Anything that interests me," Dark said simply despite the glare.

"Okay," Miles replied. "I'm surprised that you enjoyed classical music. Not a lot of people really want to try listening to classical music, so I'm not sure why."

"It's because they want to be stupid," Dark answered.

"Really," Miles looked at Dark. "I thought it's because they're not interested or because it makes them fall asleep."

"It's really because they don't want to think deeply about life." Dark answered.

Miles wanted to bark at Dark that he should be more better than Arial's personal lapdog but he didn't if he wants to talk to him.

"What genres of books do you read?" Miles asked, changing the subject.

"Any that interest me," Dark answered.

"Any in particular?"

"Nope. Just any book that interest me."

"Okay," Miles nodded. He then asked, "Do you want to look at a documentary after this? It talks about various types of food."

Dark nodded, interested at what Miles was suggesting. "Use the Scroll for the patients. The white one."

Miles nodded as he walked towards the table that has both the white Scroll and the black covered Scroll and picked up after the classical music video had ended.

Once he inputted the patient's Scroll, the screen shows the documentary before playing it before putting it back on the table. Miles and Dark then simply look at it for a while in silence, only talking to each other if it's something non-related to the cafe, Arial, or in Miles' case, why Dark was upset about something around the crowd after the fight. Once the documentary has ended, Miles looked at Dark as he was looking at the documentary with a blank expression.

"How was it?"

"Pretty okay."

"That's good," Miles commented somewhat nervously. "I'm surprised you remain calm for the entire video, so I must be impressed."

Dark simply nodded at Miles. Before long, Miles looked at the time on the TV screen before he sighed. "Sorry, but it looks like I have to get back to the Academy. I'll see you soon whenever possible."

Miles then went out of the hospital, leaving Dark to himself as he used the patient's Scroll to listen to whatever he want to listen.

Unexpectedly, Miles start to continue checking on Dark in the hospital for a while now, probably almost everyday to say the least as he did the routine of either chatting with Dark on unrelated topics, listening to music, looking at videos on the screen that can range from documentaries to regular videos despite Dark retained his blank exterior, or any combination whatsoever.

At times during the visits, Miles asked the nurse that tended to Dark if he can have some food or drinks, but he often asked Dark if he wanted some. At times, Dark either said yes or no when asked about that question. Regardless, if Miles wanted to get some food for either himself and/or for Dark, he often uses his Lien to pay for them. For the nurse that tended to Dark, she looked like she wanted to help Dark feel better out of her own volition and felt surprised whenever Miles comes to visit, wondering why he always comes to visit whenever possible. But for Lynn, Ashley, Raleigh, and Harper with their concerns for Miles visiting Dark, he often tells any of them what had happened to make sure they didn't worry too much, which often works at times.

But still, Miles didn't talk to Dark about why he trusted Arial despite being a horrible person, how he got AURA and a usable Sembalance despite him not being a Hunter trainee, and who did he saw in the crowd that Dark noticed.

It was another day at a visit with Dark in the hospital, where Miles was walking in to Dark's room wearing his dark green jacket with brown pants and brown walking boots. The process during the visit still remained the same with Dark currently listening to mediatation music once Miles comes it. During that time before the music ended, Miles either stirs up a conversation or just sit quietly.

Once the music ended, Miles wanted to ask Dark about whether or not he wanted to look at something different, but Dark looked at him curiously.

"Why did you always check on me?" Dark asked.


	3. Chapter 3

"Why do you always check on me?" Dark asked.

Miles was surprised by Dark's answer, since he typically expects him not to talk that much. "I want to make sure you're feeling okay."

"But why give me hospitality even though I tried to attack you and your allies?"

"It was during the aftermath of the battle when I noticed you and a guy around the crowd were doing some sort of lip reading as if you two knew each other. When that guy left with a pained expression, another guy near him followed him with that same look as if they knew you," Miles explained. "I'm not sure what had happened between the three of you, but the way you acted at that time looked like you were depressed about losing someone you knew. Not only that, you reminded me of how I felt when I lost Blake."

Dark looked at Miles intently at his response. "Who's Blake?"

"Blakeshire Colton, or 'Blake' for short, was my lifelong friend," Miles answered. "We grew up together back in my hometown where he was living with his relatives. Despite the fact my sister and I were adopted by a wolf and hound Fanus family, he doesn't mind about it. The three of us decided to become Hunters so that we can fight against the Grimm and protect villages, including the hometown we grew up in. However a few weeks ago Blake, along with his teammates, were sent on a simple scouting mission that suddenly went wrong and there was no evidence of what had happened to them. Not only that, I may never know what really happened to them."

"I'm sorry about your friend and his teammates, Miles," Dark replied.

"I know, and I just felt upset about my friend going missing like this."

For a moment, things grew quiet between the two before Dark asked, "What about Blake's parents for that matter?"

"Let's just say things deteriorated between them, and he wanted out of it." Miles responded bitterly.

Dark look at the window for a moment before looking back at him. "You know, he wasn't the only one who had a rough childhood and living with subsituted loved ones."

"What did you mean?"

Dark recalled his tale, where he was born and raised with a codename 'Darkness' or Dark for short by a group of people that used him as a weapon against people that dare challenge them, being trained only for combat at the age of five. He was given AURA by the group that he had wore for all his missions and later gain a Sembalance he personally called 'Umbrage' for the use of being able to disappear through bending of light and shadow at the cost of visibility, but he had to went through it using his other senses and had managed to use multiple skills with the use of his shadow-based abilities. But to discourage him from rebelling they placed a shock collar that doubles as a tracker that would administered electric shocks via a remote that one of them use during the missions as his handler.

It was like until when he was twelve or thirteen(he couldn't recalled what age he is at that time) he got rid of them brutally during an attack against a village full of noncombatants because the village didn't agree with the group on what they should and shouldn't do.

It started out with Dark using his Sembalance to silently get rid of a village during the night on a village that is known to specialize in ice-related skills and abilities using specialize gloves that dared oppose the group, but with a village being mostly consisted of noncombatants including young children and elderly not being involved in it, he grew disgusted by this nonsensical attack but had to follow orders regardless.

In one of the houses that belong to Arial's parents who he quietly dispatched, Arial(who was eight at that time) saw the event happened and was worried she would be next, but Dark was hesitant to do it and told her what's going to happen in a regretful tone as he grew tired of attacking innocent bystanders. Arial acknowledged that it wasn't Dark's fault for being forced to do things against his will. Things grew silent between the two until his handler came into her house to force him to finish her off despite her being a child.

Arial, with her options becoming limited was forced to risk her own life to grab his handler's remote as they wrestle for control over it while Dark watched. Arial managed to get the remote at the cost of injuring herself from the handler brutally beating her up so badly that she couldn't even move before Dark took advantage of Arial having the remote to brutally attack his handler. Once finished, Dark thought Arial wanted vengeance for what Dark had done to her parents and perhaps partially the village when she had the remote, as it contained a function to inflict maximun harm on him but chose to deactivated the collar before she said, "Be free."

Once freed from his collar, Arial told him he can have the mp3 player in her room that was wrapped in a present as a gift from her parents for her birthday but knew he can have it as a reminder of her risking her own life to save him. Not only that, when she heard that he didn't have a name, Arial decided to called him Kuraikaze(Black Wind) due to his dark attire he often wore while adding 'kaze' into the mix until she fell into a coma. Dark, vengeful for what he had done to partially the village went on a rampage against the group that used him which included his parents for treating their own son as a living weapon, before becoming a wanderer for the time being until going to Progress Academy that was located near Beacon, a regular university that orignally was for humans before admitting Fanus students.

During the time at Progress Academy as a student, Dark wanted to keep a low profile while under the disguise of a typical student while taking his courses but quickly became a part of a group of friends and had several adventures together both mundane and dangerous despite not all of them being regular students and gained a girlfriend named Mizore Shirayuki that fell in love with him, although they all had to train themselves and each other on their combat skills to deal with threats they have to deal with and they all actually have thoughts of taking mixed martial arts classes to be better used to combat. However he checked on Arial stealthly in a hopsital as much as possible during his free time until she was awake and adjusted to getting her body to move after years of being in a coma, Dark agree to look after her with her permission until she was adopted. Despite Arial sadden that she was now alone, she was grateful that Dark was willing to look after her after years of being in a coma.

Although his friends were looking forward to seeing Arial, sadly this proved to be the opposite as she clashed against them various times and even tried to harm Mizore because she was getting close to Dark despite trying to reason her out but didn't try to protect his friends like he did before despite having her for nearly a week. Although there were similar arguments from his friends in the past, they got along with each other after a while, so he expected Arial to do the same thing. But most of all was she gave him a reason to exist and know that she was having a hard time coping with the losses from her childhood.

With Arial around, friction grew between Dark and his friends, stating that Arial is becoming a problem to be around with, but Dark was willing to protect her if his friends try to fight her, making thengs even more tense than it was. During that time, Dark felt he wanted to invite his friends to a Crepe shop that was around Beacon but only Arial came, and they all know the rest. However, the two guys that saw Dark lying down were a dove Fanus named Rason Daysighter who kept his wings underneath his shirts and the wolf Fanus named Gintaras 'Gin' Lycano, two of his friends from Progress Academy.

"And that's my story." Dark concluded, giving Miles huge eyes at this revelation at what Dark had told.

"I just can't believe this," Miles replied. "I guess that explains why Lynn was having a hard time defeating you despite using her Semblance to hold you off, didn't you."

"True, but you and your friends that put us . . ."

"Their names were Lynn Eclipse, her husband Raleigh Acker, our friend Ashley Rè Huǒ, and Raleigh's coworker Harper Brown." Miles interrupted. "They were not the attackers Dark. Raleigh tried to put Arial out just to help his customers enjoy their time after her attitude had gotten too far when Harper called her out for being disrespectful on the prospect of your friends arriving to Coluer Crepes and lashing out on her. Lynn, Ashley, and myself intervened when she proved hostile and when you tried to attack him and all of us without them trying to tell their side of the story or looking at the cameras that were placed in the store. Unlike both of you, Lynn, Ashley, and myself are students from Beacon Academy that teaches us on becoming Hunters, and we held back from using our full potential because you two are civilians that need to stopped non-lethally for harming innocent civilians in a public area."

"I wouldn't tolerate Arial being attacked, not after what I had done to her in the past," Dark replied.

"But you protected your friends from attackers other than Arial," Miles countered. "Although you wanted your friends to learn how to become stronger to protect each other and themselves, things went downhill when Arial came into the picture. Before she came around, the shenanigans that goes around with you and your friends were understandable at times, and all of you manage to overcome issues that comes up, mundane and not-so mundane. But with Arial around, it felt like all the progress you and your friends came to this point felt like it was all for nothing."

Dark glared. "This isn't one of your sarcastic jokes that I had to listen to, Miles Forester?"

"Yeah, and I wondered how things turned out if Arial got out of her coma before you went to Progress Academy in the first place?" Miles deadpanned bitterly. "Would things get better or worse? But more importantly, how many enemies at that time would not have her join forces with them just so she can have you at the cost of potentially endangering everybody else? What do you think?"

"This isn't a stupid joke of yours?"

"I'm expressing my opinions, that what," Miles replied. "Everybody has a right to do that."

"But why did you came when my friends didn't!?" Dark growled. "All I know is that Arial is still in the hospital and I can't see her."

"They didn't abandoned you, Dark Kuraikaze," Miles answered somberly. "You abandoned them."

Dark grew silent about Miles' answered, wondering about why he made this statement without fear or hesitation.

"The real reason they stopped trusting you is because you trusting a girl who couldn't handle dealing with losing someone connected to her past thanks to the losses she had seen herself, despite the fact that she suffered from a coma after freeing you from your group's control." Miles explained. "When she awoke, she had to be cruel to your friends, particularly your girlfriend as well, so that way they will abandon you without hesitation whatsoever."

"What are you saying?" Dark asked, his fury towards the guy slowly start to go into question.

"Here's what you really need to know," Miles explained. "The present Arial Kōrinokaze only wanted you for herself, not as friend, not as a sibling, not as some parental figure, but as a slave and lover. Not the past Arial, who wanted you to live by your own choices by your own decisions. The present Arial wanted you to do the opposite on you."

Dark wanted to argue, accuse Miles even, but the fact that he didn't want to falter made him silent at what he answered. "I . . . I know that it was my fault I attacked her village and made her lose her parents, and maybe her loved ones in the process. I . . . I just wanted to atone for what I did to her and her village against my will."

"That doesn't excused the fact that the present Arial took advantage of your guilt to make your friends and allies desert you when you need it," Miles argued. "Not only that, if the past Arial discovers you are following by her present self and not standing up against her, devastated by your decision to not be an individual would be the least of what she would have handled.

"Not only that," Miles added. "Your friends cared about your well-being; the present Arial didn't. And although we can pity her for what she had gone through after arising from her coma to the present times, she should not decide to make you lose the people that respect and care about you despite your troubled past, especially a girl that loved you for being there for her."

"You mean . . . Mizore Shirayuki?" Dark suggested.

"Yes, her," Miles nodded. "She loved you because you protected her, you looked after her, you even helped comfort her whenever possible. And she gave you all her love and trust in you. Arial desired to erase that into existance so that she keep you and only you to herself!"

Dark grew furious at this, wanting to rebuke Miles' statements about Arial and telling him he was a horrible person that was a part of his friends against them, but the memories of him being treated as a friend for the past couple of days without showing any signs of malice in him prevented Dark from making that happen.

Likewise, trying to tell Miles that Arial is still a good person that was dealing with serious trauma is slowly starting to go against him internally by how Arial had started to view him was slowly starting to crumble by the recent events.

But by then, Dark started to remember all the terrible events that occured ever since Arial came out of the coma up to this point, and he either ignored it or go against them if they try to do anything against her.

Realizing what he had done and his failure to live up to the past Arial's final wishes, Dark lied down on his pillow as tears started to come out of his eyes, regretting for not standing up for himself against the current Arial. "This is all my fault. I was so blind for not realizing what Arial had done to my friends, to my Mizore. And I did nothing to stop this."

Dark slowly start to break down internally, wondering why he was acting like this ever since Arial woke up. Not only that, he now started to think all his friends have hated him and decided to leave him with nothing but himself and Arial. _'Just like when I was a mere child,'_ Dark teared to himself. _'Useless and alone without a purpose to my own existence.'_

Dark then looked at Miles as tears were in his eyes. "I'm sorry . . . I'm so sorry that I made you and your friends suffer from what we had done to you."

He then looked up to the ceiling, his his expression looking sad and upset at the same time. "Is it . . . too late . . . to forgive them, for . . . something . . . this horrible?"

Miles put a hand to Dark's shoulder, making him ease up as he looked at Miles with a calm expression on his face.

"It's never too late to forgive them," Miles answered. "You only known them for about nearly two months now. Besides, at least you can forgive them for what they all been through. And I want to forgive you."

Dark nodded silently and asked, "Call I have my Scroll, the black one. . . please? I just want to talk to them."

Miles nodded and he took Dark's Scroll from the table and into his hand. He then watched as Dark activates it and started to dial some numbers. Although he couldn't get a response, he waited for voicemail to pop up after a few minutes.

Once the voicemail had set up, Dark calmed himself down. "Hello, everyone. If your reading this message right now, I want to know that I'm sorry for not stopping Arial from tormenting all of you, even you Mizore. I was just happy that Arial was awake and know that she was just having a hard time adjusting to life after the coma, but I didn't realize she wanted to get rid of everyone so she keep me to herself. I know that we can't fault her for losing so much in her past due to what I had done to her family and friends, but we shouldn't let her make excuses to do whatever she wants on others just to make herself feel better."

Dark sighed before he added. "I know that not everybody is going to like me apologizing for my ignorance on Arial's cruelty, but I know that if you do forgive me, I promise that I will stop having Arial around our social circle and willing to fight her should she try to harm us every again. And stop being ignorant if issues like that start to pop up in the near future. But still, I'm sorry."

After that, Dark hanged up on his Scroll before going on his contact list and deleting Arial's Scroll Number, not wanting to reason her out if she can't be reasoned with at all. After doing all this, he looked at Miles and asked, "What do you think of it? I know I may never regain my friends despite this, but at least it was worth a shot."

"I know Dark," Miles nodded as a small smile came up to him. "But even if that possibility rises up, I'll be your friend should you keep your promise."

Dark looked at him with a surprised look on his face. "You're serious, aren't you?"

Miles chuckled lightly for a moment. "Of course, Dark."

Miles then put his hand up to Dark and asked, "Friends?"

Dark gave a small smile and replied, "Friends."

Both Miles and Dark shooks hands briefly before letting them go as they looked each other in a new light now.

"So, anything you want to talk about?" Miles asked casually.

"Sure?" Dark replied with a small smile.

A few days have pass after Miles had officially became his new friend, Dark was lying on the bed, listening to the sound of slow jazz music from the TV screen from the patient's Scroll.

While the jazz music was playing, Dark recalled how the doctors were surprised that Miles came to check on him often despite being a former enemy and discussing various event from their lives while either eating food, listening to music, or looking at videos on the internet.

At least thankfully Dark could be able to leave the hospital in a matter of days according to the doctor assigned to him, so that was a plus to him although it would take weeks for his arm, legs, and body to heal properly if he follow the doctor's instructions.

However due to his actions at the Coluer Crepes, he know he has to go to court for this, but didn't mind that just to make up for the damages during that time and putting Lynn into the hospital despite Miles telling him that she had on body armor and AURA to back her up.

Yet with the aftermath of Arial's attempt to seperate him from his own friends and Mizore still lingers within Dark, as despite him not wanting to respond to Arial's calls, he's unsure whether or not he might regain touch with any of them regardless of what they been through with her.

Before Dark can go any further with his thoughts, a nurse came to his room and said, "Mr. Dark, you have a visitor."

Although he expected Miles to arrive once Dark looked at the door, instead he saw a girl somewhat shorter than him with pale skin, light purple hair that goes around the neck area, gentle light blue eyes, and wore a light purple long-sleeve shirt underneath a white short-sleeve shirt, a purple skirt that goes to her lower thighs, long light and dark purple striped leggings, and white tennis shoes. But the familiar face, along with a belt around one of her legs, a lolipop on her mouth, and a simple black choker necklace with a small metallic gray pendant, alerted Dark from his stare.

"Mizore Shirayuki," Dark said calmly.

"Well, I'll let you two chat alone, okay?" The nurse said politely before she added, "If you need anything, just let me know by contacting on the patient's Scroll, okay?"

The nurse leaves the room as soon as possible as she hums to herself, leaving both Dark and Mizore alone in the room.

For a moment things were quiet between the two as they never saw each other after Dark had been in the hospital for a couple of days now with contact from the doctor, the nurses, or Miles for that matter.

"So, what do you come here for?" Dark asked calmly.

Mizore looked to the floor for a moment before looking at Dark. "I . . . we heard the voice message you sent a few days ago detailing your apology to us. We discussed it for a few days before we could decide if we could forgive you or not. Thankfully we didn't saw Arial for a while and were glad you decided to not have her around us or our friends."

"We should thank Miles Forester for helping me see Arial, or what he called 'Present' Arial, for who she really is," Dark explained. "I regretted having her around, especially during times when she was becoming hostile and I did nothing to stop her."

"We know, Dark," Mizore nodded quietly. "It was understandable for her to lose her loved ones from your actions against your will. However, it was not understandable for her to increasingly act harsh to everyone."

Dark looked at Mizore for a moment before he asked. "So, Mizore. Do you forgive me?"

"Yes," Mizore answered simply.

"Why?"

"I know that you stilled loved me, even if things grew rough between us," Mizore explained as she walked closer to Dark. "You were willing to protect me, to love me, and being always with me whenever possible. I was sad that Arial wanted to destroy that happiness between us and you not wanting to stop her. I was even more depressed by how our friends were divided because of it, because of how you were in trouble with the law for attacking the Hunters that want to stop Arial from trying to hurt an innocent civilian."

Her tone grew more grim. "I spent most of my time in my room, trying to justify why things grew bad between us. I wanted to be a good wife and mother to you while having friends around us. I just couldn't understand why Arial wanted to destroy this happiness that we are trying to build and I even stopped using my Scroll to contact anyone, even you, worried that I might lose my friends if I managed to contact you. But when our friends told me about your apology message, I knew I have to figure out if it was really geniune or not."

"And what did you think of it?"

"Geniune," Mizore answered. "You looked guilty for unintentionally siding with Arial despite having me being your potential wife. I know this isn't your fault. And I know that I'll forgive you for what you have been through, Dark Kuraikaze."

Dark just looked at Mizore, sad that she was emotionally hurt by the wedge made by Arial and the effects it had on her, to being glad that she managed to forgive him when he apologized to everyone for his ignorance, he could help but give a small smile to her.

As Mizore walked near Dark and got onto his level, he patted Mizore on her head gently and rubbing her hair, making her blush for a moment while looking at him.

"Dark . . ."

"Mizore . . . "

"Dark . . ."

"Mizore . . ."

Before long while whispering each other's name, both slowly to inch closer to each other, the tune of the slow jazz music blending in nicely between the two as they got closer to each other.

Once they got close enough, Dark moved his hand to Mizore's lollipop and gently pull it off her her mouth before they started to kiss each other while touching each other's cheek to feel their skin, happy that they finally rekindled their relationship after a while of seperation.

During their time kissing each other both Dark and Mizore started to get the idea to having their kissing to be added with some, or perhaps, lots of tongue with that.

"So why are we going again?" A teenage girl asked.

The teenage girl in question had fair skin, black hair tied in a bun, brown eyes with and was wearing her regular brown leather jacket with black pants and brown walking boots.

"We're going to check on Dark, Harper," Miles explained as they were walking around the hospital as he wore his grass green jacket, black pants, and black walking boots. "I know you don't trust him fully due to what happened to our friends, but he's just a guy being manipulated by a girl who lost almost everything in her past."

"Still I can't believe I have to go with you just to see him," Harper sighed, recalling how Miles told her, Lynn, Ashley, and the others about what had happened between him and Dark, although she was worried that Dark could lash out or possibly attack her despite Miles being around.

Once they're in the floor that Dark was in, Miles and Harper walked around a couple of doors before going to the one that Dark was in. But before they can open it, they saw Dark kissing a light purple hair girl with elements of using their tongues in the process.

"I think we'll wait for Dark to finish . . . doing something to someone he knows," Miles suggested through gritted teeth.

"Of course, Miles," Harper nodded, wanting to recalculate her earlier statements about Dark due to what she saw just now.

After a few minutes, Miles took a look again at Dark's room and saw that both him and the light purple hair girl just talking to each other, giving him time to gesture Harper to get inside.

As they went inside Miles greeted, "Hey Dark. This is Harper Brown, an employee of Coluer Crepes."

"Hello there," Harper replied, partially nervous and suprised at the same time by what she saw.

Miles looked at the light purple hair girl and asked, "And you must be?"

"MIzore Shirayuki," the light purple haired girl answered quietly.

"Looks like Dark and and Mizore finally rekindled their love for each other," a guy commented lightly. "That was sweet."

Miles and Teagan looked around and saw a guy with blonde hair and a messy black haired guy with wolf ears standing right beside the door.

The blonde guy was wearing a light blue long-sleeved shirt with a yellow collared short sleeve shirt above it, khaki pants, and white tennis shoes. The wolf Fanus had on a brown shirt with an unbuttoned gray and amber plaid shirt on top of it, jeans, and black loafers. But more importantly, the blonde guy had a small smile on his face while the wolf Fanus had a smirk.

"Rason, Gin, good to see you again," Dark nodded.

"We thought we wanted to see you again after some time apart," the blonde guy named Rason explained. "I'm grateful you and Mizore made up."

"But anyway, the rest of us want to forgive you, Dark, and wanted to rebuild our friendship with each other," the wolf Fanus named Gin explained. "But as long as you keep up your promise, we'll keep ours."

"That's good," Dark nodded.

"By the way, who are these two?" Rason asked.

"This is Miles Forester and Harper Brown," Dark explained.

"Whoa, I didn't see that coming," Gin said as he saw them.

"Hello there," Harper nodded.

"Hey," Miles greeted.

"Oh, by the way," Mizore said. "Everyone else will be coming up pretty shortly since they forgot to eat lunch, so the rest will arrive pretty shortly."

"I just can't wait," Miles mumbled to himself.

"I think we're going to have a long day Miles," Harper sighed lightly as the rest of Dark's friends show up.

Although Miles was grateful to help rebuild trust between Dark and his friends, something tells him he and Harper are going to stay for a while with all of them around to check up with him after their time apart from each other.


	4. Epilogue

Around a sunny day in the city, Lynn, Ashley, and Miles were walking inside the Couleur Crepes that was back in good shape. What was different is that the three did not wear their Hunter attires like last time for the sunny weather. Not only that, Lynn was no longer in a arm and leg cast from the injuries gained from Dark.

Once inside, they saw Raleigh cooking up some crepes for the customers, so they sat down near a table with some chairs in them and waited until Raleigh was done cooking.

It wasn't long before Raleigh walked up to them while grabbing a chair nearby and sat next to them with a smirk. "Hey guys, how are things going?"

"Pretty good," Lynn replied. She wore her trademark navy blue trench coat with a coat belt around her waist, black pants, and black walking boots.

"Not too bad; just coming out of Beacon Academy to get something to eat for the afternoon after completing those tests." Ashley smirked. She had on a short sleeve orange shirt with black trimmings around the sleeves over her tan colored pants and had on black sneakers with her orange and dark brown leather jacket tied around her waist.

"Of course, but at least we got a break from all this," Miles nodded. He had on a regular green short sleeve shirt over his dark blue pants and had on black sneakers. "How abour you Raleigh?"

"Pretty good." Raleigh nodded, still wearing his trademark Couleur Crepes uniform. "I'm grateful that Dark gave us a paid compensation for the damages last month and now it's fully repaired and back on business."

"Although you still want to stay home for a while longer taking care of Lynn I'm assume," Ashley teased.

"Ash," Raleigh sighed, making her giggle lightly. He then said, "But anyway, I guess I should thank Miles for reasoning Dark to fix this mess."

"I know Raleigh," Miles replied. "But I wanted to know why Dark was depressed at that time and realize he and his friends had a fallout due to Arial."

"You mean that frosty jerk," Ashley growled. "I was so grateful to scald her with hot water with a side of electricy with my Fireshot."

"I know Ashley, but we should note that Arial had suffered probably the worse day of her life back when she was little and probably was worried about losing her only connection from her childhood," Miles explained.

"We can't fault her for what she been through, but that doesn't justify her actions to Dark's friends and his girlfriend, Mizore," Lynn replied. "If Arial was worried about losing Dark she would have told them about in the first place, preventing the whole mess from occuring."

"That and preventing unnecessary conflict between everyone," Raleigh added as he recalled the chaotic ordeal a month ago. "By the way, what ever happened to her?"

Miles answered, "Last time I asked, Dark recently told me that Arial had planned to enroll herself to Haven Academy instead of going to the Praesidan Academy he and his friends go to."

"Wait, why?" Ashley asked.

"Dark told me that Arial just called him on his Scroll after classes had ended and told him that she needed some time to herself in Haven after her parole has ended," Miles recalled. "He thought that Arial could be causing trouble but the way she told him sounded like she was really conflicted and depressed. Although he want to check on her about this, he didn't do it due to the way she wanted him for herself before and how she acted. The last thing Arial said before she hanged up was that she was sorry for all the trouble she brought to him and all of his friends."

"Wait, is she joking?"

"I'm not sure about that," Raleigh replied. "Due to Arial going as far as attacking any of them despite being around for a week and knowing what had happened to her before, I say she has a long way to go before they can fully trust her again."

"Still, we can't argue about what she been through with her traumatic experience when she was little regardless," Lynn explained. "If she wants to go to Haven, then let her do that. But as long as she remains her distance then we all have no problems."

"By the way Miles, how are things going between Dark and this Mizore Shirayuki girl?" Ashley asked. She had recalled that Dark had a girlfriend according to Miles and last time she and their friends heard was that they made up.

"He told me that their relationship is still standing," Miles explained. "It took awhile for them to make up, but at least it was worth it in the end. Plus they decided they're going to marry really soon."

"When are they going to do it?" Ashley asked.

"About a year," Miles answered nonchalantly.

"Dude?" Ashley gasped. Lynn and Raleigh just looked at him with big eyes as they try not to fall on the floor.

"What else we should know?" Ashley asked through gritted teeth.

"Basically he wanted to invite us to their wedding as an apology what we been through, but thankfully Arial isn't invited right now," Miles explained. "We might get invitation cards later. Also he want to let Raleigh know that he plans on going to Coleur Crepes in about three days for what Gin called a 'Deca-date.'"

"That isn't so bad," Raleigh said.

"Raleigh," Lynn replied, "Deca means ten, and from information from Miles in regards to Dark, Mizore, and their friends, currently they have twenty friends from the Academy that they were apart of."

"Akwward," Ashley whispered, recalling all the mundane and not-so mundame events that Dark and his friends had went through during Progress Academy from Miles.

Raleigh got out of the chair. "If you excuse me, I'll tell my manager about this . . . incase of . . . untimely events start to occur. I also felt I need to get back to work."

"And we just get some food and just talk about other stuff," Lynn nodded. "Is everyone okay?"

Ashley and Miles nodded and decided to order some food. But during that time, Miles pulled Dark's mp3 player that he gave him out of his pocket and looked at it for a moment before pulling it back onto his pocket. After Miles got some food and watched as Lynn and Ashley chatted with each other about something else, he pulled out the mp3 player and place the ear buds on his ears before deciding to listen to some of his music. Still, Miles can't want to see Dark again real soon, along with his true friends that he gained during that time.


End file.
